Media Create

The week following the Golden Week always sees a major drop in sales, and this year is no exception. There was only one new release in the Media Create Top 20 this week, and it’s Attack on Titan: Shichi Kara no Dasshutsu on Nintendo 3DS. Unfortunately, its debut cannot be described as anything else but mediocre, and that’s putting it midly.

With only 8 599 units sold, the game completely failed to capitalise on the second season of the anime series, currently airing on TV. Then again, the fact that it’s an adventure game, featuring an original story to boot, most likely didn’t help. In fact, it’s probably for that very reason the game didn’t sell well in the first place.

In comparison, Spike-Chunsoft’s Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains sold 89 448 units at launch, and 427 701 units LTD (though that’s for all versions combined. Famitsu data). It’s downright impossible Attack on Titan: Shichi Kara no Dasshutsu will come anywhere close to total sales of its “predecessor”, or even reach 100 000 units (unless sales remain steady in the upcoming weeks, but the chances of that happening are pretty low).

As mentioned above, the week following the Golden Week is always pretty bad for the Japanese market as a whole, and this week’s sales data is proof of that. The Nintendo Switch games are not spared, especially as Hardware dropped significantly this week.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold “only” 36 440 units this week, which is a 60% drop. This brings the total to 411 915 units since launch: less than a month in, and it’s already over 400 000 units! The next milestone, 500 000 units, will most likely not be reached before next month, unless Nintendo ships more consoles than expected in the upcoming weeks (but they’re more likely to focus on ARMS launch).

Monster Hunter XX also saw a significant drop in sales (-51%), but actually went up this week. With 15 002 units sold, it’s drawing ever nearer to the 1.5 million units threshold at retail, which should be reached sometime in (early) June. Right now, it’s standing at 1 466 546 units sold since launch.

Next, let’s take a look at how Nintendo Switch launch titles are faring:

03./04. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo) – 11.916 / 454.783 (-46%). The drop is more limited than for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but it’s still significant. Hardware sales suffered a big drop this week, and this game was impacted as a result;

This week, the Wii U version sold 3 395 additional units (-52%), bringing the total to 119 708 units. Since launch, both versions combined have sold 574 491 units.

11./08. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) – 3.410 / 208.856 (-64%). This one dropped harder than Zelda, which is not surprising since it’s less popular (not to mention people now have Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for their multiplayer needs)

You can also add Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission X to the list of games that sold well during the Golden Week, but suffered a major drop in sales the following week (which was expected for most of them). Still, this one managed to remain above the 10 000 units/week threshold one last week, with 10 574 units sold (-66%). 138 938 units have been sold since launch, and sales should remain slow but steady in the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, things are not really looking “hot” for Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, which only sold 5 713 units this week (-61%). While it’s definitely going to reach 200 000 units sold LTD, it doesn’t look like it’s going to catch up with the two remakes on Nintendo DS any time soon, if at all.

As for Pro Yakyuu Famista Climax, it sold 3 959 units this week, and suffered the usual post-Golden Week drop (-63%). However, it should keep selling a slow but steady amount every week in the foreseeable future. It’s currently sitting at 73 683 units sold since launch, and since the upcoming weeks are going to be pretty slow, it’s going to be a little while until sales top 100 000 units.

The same things can be said about Mario Sports Superstars, which sold 3 486 units this week (-68%). But the main difference with Pro Yakyuu Famista Climax is that it’s going to reach 100 000 units sold earlier: it’s currently at 89 964 units sold since launch.

15./17. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome amiibo (Nintendo) – 2.939 / 175.948 (-43%). Despite the drop in sales, it actually went up in the Top 20 this week. You don’t get rid of Isabelle that easily, my good sir!

Media Create – Hardware

This week, Nintendo Switch sales dropped to their lowest level since launch: 24 712 units. You would expect it to be the usual post-Golden Week drop at work, but that doesn’t account for the fact the Nintendo Switch is still extremely hard to find in stores, with several of them still resorting to lottery to determine who can buy one when they do get stock.

It looks like Nintendo focused on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe launch and the Golden Week, and didn’t save many units for the following week. This is not surprising, since May is typically one of the slowest months of the year for the video game market in Japan (as a matter of fact, the worst week on record for Media Create was in May).

It will be interesting to see how many units Nintendo ends up shipping leading to the launch of ARMS, on June 16th. It looks like we can expect something around 20-30 000 units per week until then.

As for the Nintendo 3DS, sales dropped to 17 526 units, which is basically the same as last year during the same week. It’s certainly interesting to see sales remain that stable week after week, even after the launch of the Nintendo Switch. It just goes to show that the Japanese audience doesn’t quite see the Nintendo Switch as the successor of the Nintendo 3DS, not yet at least.

Year to Date sales are slighly up this year, but that’s without taking into account the 100 000 units from the Pokémon Nintendo 2DS bundles. Still, the Nintendo 3DS isn’t really selling like a handheld in its 7th year on the market.

Finally, the Wii U sold 157 units this week. It looks like it might hit double-digit as early as next week.

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